The Choir

Under Musical Director Ralph Woodward, the Fairhaven Singers has become one of East Anglia’s foremost chamber choirs. Our diverse repertoire encompasses the sacred and the secular, spanning eight centuries, and has delighted audiences in Cambridge and across Europe. Our concerts range widely in mood and style, from intimate evenings of a cappella music to major choral-orchestral works with world-class soloists, but every concert offers our trademark energy, quality and warmth.

Highlights have included a collaboration with Michael Chance and the English Chamber Orchestra, a project with Dame Emma Kirkby and the City of London Sinfonia, and Bach’s St John Passion with The Parley of Instruments. The choir has performed several times at Snape Maltings Concert Hall for the Aldeburgh Festival and the Britten Festival, and at major venues in London such as St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John’s Smith Square and Southwark Cathedral. Recent international tours have taken the choir to Italy, Portugal, Greece and Germany. The choir has appeared on BBC Radios 2, 3 and 4, and Classic FM, and has released four CDs: The Blue Skies that Sparkle (2007), a collection of choral works celebrating the beauty of nature; Will Todd’s Requiem (2009), awarded five stars by Choir & Organ magazine and an 18-certificate by Aled Jones; Full of Grace: Songs to the Virgin Mary (2011), a selection of transcendent music dedicated to the Virgin Mary and produced by John Rutter; and Into the Stars (2015), a compilation of the music written specially for us.

We are dedicated to building audiences for our repertoire and sustaining the rich tradition that gave rise to it. To this end the choir has forged relationships with a number of contemporary composers, including Bob Chilcott, Will Todd, Carl Rütti, Thomas Hewitt Jones, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Cecilia McDowall and Ola Gjeilo. We have ambitious plans for future musical projects, and we therefore warmly welcome any financial contributions which will enable us to enrich our contribution to the arts. If you or your company might consider supporting our work by making a donation, advertising in our programmes, sponsoring specific recordings, commissions or concerts, or in any other way, please contact our Chairman.

Every year the choir undertakes several concerts for charity. If you are fund-raising and wish to discuss how the Fairhaven Singers can help, or if you might wish to hire us for a wedding, corporate function, conference or reception, please contact the Chairman.

Rehearsals are held in Queens’ College Chapel each Tuesday evening in term-time. Although we have a waiting list, we do occasionally require more singers; please contact the Musical Director if you might be interested in auditioning.